After Overshadowing Climate Talks, the Myth of ‘Circularity’ Looms Over the UN Plastics Treaty
Delegates from 191 countries meet once again this month for the UN plastics treaty talks in Ottawa, and they need to avoid falling into industry traps that will hinder real progress. Dow chair and CEO Jim Fitterling’s recent Commentary in Fortune is a perfect example of how to ensure failure in Ottawa. If delegates commit to the priorities he outlined, they will fail to implement real solutions to the growing problem caused by his company and companies like it.
Turkey’s Plastic Recycling Industry Is Booming. But It Comes at a Cost.
Dotted across the southern Turkish city of Adana are illegal dump sites for plastic recycling waste that never got recycled. The labels show they've come from consumers in Europe and the United States. These countries now ship recyclable plastic waste to countries like Turkey. But this rapidly growing industry often skirts regulations, leading to health and environmental risks for the surrounding community. The World's Durrie Bouscaren reports from Adana.
Most Plastic in the U.S. Can’t Be Recycled
While Americans often diligently sort and recycle plastics at home, only 5% of plastics in the U.S. can actually be recycled. Judith Enck of the non-profit Beyond Plastics joins us to talk about plastic pollution and solutions to it.
Can Plastic Recycling Ever Really Work?
Many plastics that carry the “chasing arrows” symbol, like soda cups and yogurt tubs, are rarely recycled. A new California law is raising the bar.
The Plastic Recycling Hoax
Plastic is just about everywhere, and there’s going to be a lot more of it. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects global plastic use to triple by 2060. So what are we to do with all the waste?
How to Navigate A World Filled with Plastic
Plastics are everywhere, but L.A. Times environment reporter Susanne Rust thought she was doing a pretty good job avoiding them. That was until she spent a week recording her daily plastic interactions. She found plastics in her phone. Her car. Her swimming equipment. There was almost nothing that Rust encountered that didn’t have plastic in it.
A Slim Percentage of Plastic Gets Recycled. How Can We Change That?
The reports on plastic waste are staggering. Households in the U.S. generated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021 and 5 to 6% of that was recycled, according to Greenpeace. Beyond Plastics and The Last Beach Cleanup similarly puts the rate at 5 to 6%. On Cincinnati Edition, we're going to dive into these findings and talk about what happens when plastic is recycled, looking at the sorting and reprocessing of the material. Plus, we'll talk about what can and cannot be recycled and look at efforts to reduce plastic waste.
Inside the Industry Push to Label Your Yogurt Cup ‘Recyclable’
A network of groups backed by the plastics industry claims polypropylene containers are “widely recyclable,” despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Judith Enck: Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work
Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics, illuminates the global failure of recycling and what we can all do to make a positive difference moving forward.
Beyond Plastics: The Myths and Truths About Recycling, and Potential Solutions
The pervasiveness of plastic has become a global concern. An estimated 242 million metric tons of it is generated every year, and the United States is one of the top generators. While recycling sounds like a simple solution, it’s not. Plastic recycling has proven to be ineffective, as evidenced by a shocking statistic from Our World in Data: Out of the 5.8 billion metric tons of plastic waste generated between 1950 and 2015, only about 9% of it has been recycled. The rest has been left to be incinerated, landfilled, or littered. On top of that, a more recent report from nonprofit The Last Beach Cleanup and advocacy group Beyond Plastics found that number to be even lower, with only 5% to 6% of the U.S.’s plastic waste converted into new products in 2021.
Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work
We need the facts so that individuals and policy makers can take concrete action to replicate proven solutions to the U.S.’s plastic-waste and pollution problems across the country. These solutions include enacting bans on single-use plastic bags and unrecyclable single-use plastic food-service products, ensuring widespread access to water-refilling stations, installing dishwashing equipment in schools to allow students to eat food on real dishes rather than single-use plastics, and switching Meals on Wheels and other meal-delivery programs from disposables to reusable dishware.
We Never Got Good at Recycling Plastic. Some States Are Trying a New Approach.
After recycling's failure to appreciably reduce the amount of plastic the U.S. throws away, some states are taking a new approach, transferring the onus of recycling from consumers to product manufacturers.
Us Is Recycling Just 5% Of Its Plastic Waste, Studies Show
When most people toss a plastic bottle or cup into the recycling bin, they assume that means the plastic is recycled – but a new report lays bare how rarely that actually happens. According to the Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics, the organization behind the report released on Wednesday, the recycling rate for post-consumer plastic was just 5% to 6% in 2021.
U.S. Plastic Recycling Rate Drops to Close to 5% - Report
The rate of plastic waste recycling in the United States fell to between 5%-6% in 2021 as some countries stopped accepting U.S. waste exports and as plastic waste generation surged to new highs, according to a report released on Wednesday by environmental groups Last Beach Clean Up and Beyond Plastics.
U.S. Plastics Recycling Rate Slumps Below 6%, Analysis Finds
Americans are recycling far less plastic, according to an analysis published Wednesday, with rates falling below 6 percent in 2021. The research from Beyond Plastics and the Last Beach Cleanup aims to shed light on the state of recycling in the United States given a delay in federal reporting.
The US Only Recycled About 5% Of Plastic Waste Last Year
A new report highlights recycling's failure to keep up with growing volumes of plastic trash.
Plastics Recycling ‘Does Not Work,’ Environmentalists Stress as U.S. Recycling Rates Drop to 5%
A new report shows that U.S. plastic recycling rates have declined from about 8.7% to between 5% and 6%, revealing the challenges and shortcomings of the country’s waste management infrastructure and policies.
California Opens Investigation Into ‘Decades-Long Plastics Deception Campaign’
California’s attorney general has announced an unprecedented investigation into the fossil fuel industry — not for its knowledge about climate change, but for its role in causing the global plastics pollution crisis.
Bottled Water Giant Bluetriton Admits Claims of Recycling and Sustainability Are “Puffery”
In ongoing litigation over the greenwashing of plastic recycling, the bottled water company BlueTriton made a revealing argument: its claims of being environmentally friendly aren’t violations of the law, because they are “aspirational.”
Bill Nye and Coca-Cola Called Out for ‘Greenwashing’
Bill Nye and Coca-Cola are being called out for alleged ‘greenwashing’ in their recent partnership.